Friday, April 28, 2017

For comparative purposes, I recently reviewed a few SportsCenter episodes from the past couple of decades, and it is indeed noticeable how little politics and culture intruded into the tsunami of highlights and witty banter that once marked that show. That was reflective of the overall newsier focus ESPN had in those days....

A scan of The Undefeated on most days shows a range of content that extends far beyond sports. When The Undefeated put together its list of the 44 most influential black Americans in history, only five -- Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson and Serena Williams -- made their mark as athletes. Scanning the list of Undefeated pieces commemorating Black History Month, less than half were about sports.

These observations are not criticisms; they just show how The Undefeated -- and, by extension, ESPN -- is willing to stray from sports.... There is no denying that culture, sports and politics are fused together more today than at any time in recent memory, and there’s an argument to be made that ESPN is rightfully taking advantage of that trend. But there’s also no denying the presence of a fervent fan base that prefers the ESPN of old, meaning these worlds will continue to collide.

One thing is clear: Those of you who have not held your tongue about ESPN’s move away from an all-sports-all-the-time mantra also should not hold your breath waiting for a change.

ESPN has made it clear: It’s not sticking to sports.

Apparently as many as 90 percent of the 100 on-air people let go this week were white men. Longtime NFL and NHL reporters are gone, while clueless, no-talent SJWs like Jemele Hill are not only safe, but are being increasingly promoted.

It's a straightforward case of SJW convergence in action. ESPN is no longer capable of fulfilling its primary purpose, because the pushing the SJW Narrative is more important.

I quit watching ESPN a long, long time ago, although I had watched it from the early days of late night World's Strongest Man competitions and Australian Rules Football. It is somewhat fascinating to observe such a large organization so resolutely commit suicide in this fashion.

Dear ESPN,Roger that. Adios,America
UPDATE: for those of you who, like me, neither read nor watch ESPN anymore, it's worse than you imagine. A LOT worse. Believe it or not, this was featured on ESPN yesterday.

Four poets on the new feminism

Apr 27, 2017
espnW Poetry Month Feminism Women

In honor of National Poetry month, espnW asked four poets to reflect on their definitions of feminism, and the importance of movement.

What Leaps from a Storm's Throat, by Patricia Smith

Postcard from Diana Prince on Themyscira, by Tracie Dawson

Start Here, by Carrie Ann Welsh

My Struggle with Feminism is Black, by DéLana R.A. Dameron

PUNCHLINE: (Editor's note: An earlier version of "Five Poets on the New Feminism" featured Revolution by Dr. DaMaris Hill. We have decided it is not an appropriate selection for our site, and have removed it from the feature.)
It only took 18 years to go to that from this.

97 Comments:

To anyone unfamiliar, this goes back long before "social justice" was on most peoples' radar.

The first time I noticed this was when SciFi channel was taken over by some (presumably feminist) woman, who then "re-branded" it "SyFy" and releasing diatribes against their viewers as basement-dwelling nerds.

Top network on cable to Nick @ Night level has-been network in under 18 months after that announcement.

"There is no denying that culture, sports and politics are fused together more today than at any time in recent memory, and there’s an argument to be made that ESPN is rightfully taking advantage of that trend. But there’s also no denying the presence of a fervent fan base that prefers the ESPN of old, meaning these worlds will continue to collide."

An odd conjunction that is apparently a strained attempt to draw a parallel between two things that are entirely different in kind. The first sentence is a statement of intent; it defines a propaganda strategy for the network, while vainly attempting to disguise it as a simple observation about facts on the ground. The second sentence IS an observation about objective reality, and one that can be further quantified.

Perhaps this thought might be more clearly phrased as "Yes, we know that we have lost 12 million subscribers in the past 6 years, due almost entirely to our rabidly anti-White editorial stance and our disregard for what our customers want. We don't care, because destroying America is even more important to us than the shekels."

Just one more channel that is straying from its stated theme. How many once dominant cable channels have done this? MTV stops playing music so as to produce reality TV, History Channel stops showing historical documentaries, TechTV transforms from focusing on technology to being a 'lifestyle' channel, ESPN produces more discussion shows than actual sports. Its as if once a channel reaches success it feels like it has to abandon its original purpose and produce shows on anything but its original niche. Obviously some of these are the result of SJW convergence (MTV, ESPN) but I'm sure there are other factors involved in some of these transformations. It just seems like its the natural progression for a cable channel...achieve success with a particular niche then abandon it completely.

@1 Amazingly SyFy is doing better now that they are actually doing more science fiction and fantasy. They still have a host of grrrlll power shows but they have a few that avoid that and are pretty good.

You might as well rebrand ESPN as BSPN. It's the black sports network.

Well, one good thing in all of the SJW crap coming from the "Most God-forsaken Place on Earth"...

They (finally) fired Mark May.

Still doesn't mean I'm going to watch the channel. I mean, this place managed to fire its entire (visible) hockey staff AND keep that waste Barry Melrose DURING the playoffs. The SJW crap is the icing on the cake, personally.

How long before the Mouse jettisons them? The Mouse is surely converged as well but they do have some SJWs smart enough to realize they need to keep making money to advance their goals. The Mouse has been all about incrementalism and just pushing the line.

I could be wrong though, based on the latest Beauty and the Beast fiasco maybe they have also lost their restraint.

What ESPN is doing is a very good thing. It is fondly to be hoped that they will continue to rub their diversity and blatantly anti-white racism in the faces of whites to the point that even the most feminized, brain-dead whites get it.

If these idiots were smart they be funding antifa and their opponents, setting up cameras to catch the action with live coverage of riots they'd know were coming. That looks like it will the be the sport of choice for whites in the coming years. They could even have separate groups of commentators to call the action depending on which side of the racial and social justice divide the are on.

"But there’s also no denying the presence of a fervent fan base that prefers the ESPN of old, meaning these worlds will continue to collide."

It's interesting to watch their decline play out, because if they were smart, they could have it both ways. They could run lots of sports and old-school Sportscenter for the mostly white male sports fan base, while mixing in their feminism promotion and other leftist virtue-signaling. With the number of channels they have, they can do multiple things at once. If they were run by people with a cold eye for results, they could make that happen. But SJW Convergence is real, and can't be restrained for long by profit concerns.

So many of the comments were berating the author's editorial it was one sided. I only watch it if it's on and when I'm at my parents' house. Case in point: I was over there at Easter. They were talking about the NHL playoff games from the night before. There was no non sports commentary because 99% of NHL players aren't thugs, ol Pavel Bure excepted.

The cognitive dissonance here is delicious. They know why their viewers are upset. They clearly see the numbers. But they cannot help themselves. ESPN has become a trainwreck woman; everyone can see her fate except for her. Stand aside, drink your beer, and watch them fall.

ESPN will not fall so long as all major cable companies carry them and require them as part of their service contracts.

That is why the convergence has gone as far as it has. It's not a free market system where customers have a say over what channels they get to purchase. Do you honestly think that if customers were allowed to select which channels they want, we would have MTV, ESPN, Comedy Central, etc.?

At the very least, the television programming would be more fitting and in line with mainstream America.

I don't have cable, so I'm out of the loop on a lot of this, but last year I caught some of the NHL playoffs once it was on broadcast TV. It was like a different world, compared to NFL broadcasts. There were commercials featuring white men who weren't fat idiots! There were all-male announcer teams! The sideline reporter asked specific questions about the play on the ice, instead of insightful things like, "Coach, what do you need to do better in the next period? [Please do my job for me, while I stand here looking good.]" Amazingly refreshing.

Sportscenter was great because before the Internet had quality video, it was the only way I could see highlights from out of market games. I gave up on ESPN long ago because one of the first things to go was hockey.

Fake Entertainment and Fake Sports Programming NetworkFake History ChannelFake SciFi Channel (at least they had the decency to coin a new name that looks more like the slang for Syphillis - SyFy)Fake Music TelevisionFake Family Channel (also now rebranded Freeform - aka non-nuclear)Fake Independent Film ChannelHeck, even TBS is Fake Turner Broadcast System. He hasn't owned that for twenty years!

Love or hate Simmons, but ESPN chose The Undefeated (Black-focused sports reporting) over Grantland, an actually profitable endeavor for them. Grantland's main audience was 25-45 year old Men that skewed upper income. (The fact that Simmons probably collected the best set of sports writers in the country has a LOT to do with that appeal.) But Simmons crossed lines that were already unacceptable at ESPN, which is questioning the biggest sport leagues. He crossed the narratives and the booted him for that.

The writing, beyond the business structure problems, was set in stone at that point. ESPN wanted a new audience; one that doesn't exist.

> Apparently as many as 90 percent of the 100 on-air people let go this week were white men.

You know, that sounds like a class action discrimination law suit waiting to happen.

When we first moved to our current house, we could get any over the air TV and there was no option for cable. The only option was a C Band receiver, which we used. Later we moved to Direct TV, which started at $25/month for what we wanted. Within 5 years it was over $40 and we dropped it. We haven't tried again since.

Right now, if we needed TV for some reason, it would probably be Sling TV: https://www.sling.com/

But TV has become less an less necessary or even desirable in the years since we dropped Direct TV, so I don't see it happening.

There was an old promo (maybe 10 or 12 years ago) on ESPN where they mocked women sports fans. It featured a good looking girl trying to sound like a serious sports fan, but she kept mispronouncing ESPN as "espin" which of course revealed that she really had no clue. It's hard to believe we've gone from that to 'feminist poetry month?!?' in such a short time.

I have only rarely watched ESPN, and only for Monday Night games in my own home. But I have seen "shows" in bars, hotels etc.

This Stephen A Smith clown would have been canned years ago if he were white, but instead he is called "controversial" at worst. ESPN keepin' it real, I guess, whatever.

I can't stand the guy, and he is solely responsible for my own loathing of the network. This fake ghetto jive schtick is beyond cringeworthy, but appeals to the audience they want. I can't believe Colt 45 Malt Liquor sales are good enough to keep these idiots employed,

I just did the same thing a few months ago and I only had the most basic package. Time Warner changed to Spectrum and my cable bill increased by 60% within a month thereafter!!! I went apeshit on the phone with customer service and told them to cancel all except internet service. Now they are overcharging for bandwidth.

The folks at Breitbart could use a copy of SJWAL. Earlier this month ESPN announced a new code of conduct policy that claimed to want to take the politics out of sports broadcasts. The folks at Breitbart at the newsdesk and in the commentary hailed it as a good, strong move by ESPN to try to clean up all this convergence.

Some of us who had read SJWAL got on the forums and cried, "Lookout! This is bad news. This code of conduct will be weaponized by the SJWs."

Sure enough, the VERY NEXT DAY after the new code was announced they used it against Sage Steele. They got her for making un-PC comments on her personal Facebook account. She's gone. As anybody who read SJWAL would have predicted, that code of conduct is a weapon.

- ESPN goes bankrupt- Trump Industries buys the network for pennies on the dollar- Changes the name of ESPN Deportes to ESPN Deports- Broadcasts live deportations of illegals 24/7- Becomes most watched network in America

Gordon wrote:It's really weird watching ESPN commit suicide. Yeah, the business model is ill-fated. But one would think they should concentrate on what made them successful. Instead, they double down on stupid.

Do they really sit around in meetings saying, "I know! Feminist poetry! Now we'll get all of the lesbians! And Beyonce fans too!"

I think it's more like "all my friends love feminist poetry, and they don't currently watch our network or visit our sites. This is a VAST untapped market."

I am beginning to wonder how many parasites Disney can support before the host is drained and dies.

ABC is a money loser but then the ABC purchase was always about promoting Disney Parks and Movies so it can be viewed as a controlled marketing loss. Although you would think it would be better to actually turn a profit...which they are not going to do. One season of Agent Carter was an understandable gamble. Two seasons was nothing but a hymn to feminism.

But Disney isn't even getting that out of ESPN. There is no reason for Disney to not spin it off as bad investment but we all know they won't leave their fellow SJWs to starve.

Stephen A. is a name-dropping buffoon, but he's Howard fuckin' Cosell compared to the shrieking idiocy that is Jemele Hill, who is apparently their star "anchor", at least according to the ads they keep shoving out on the ESPNFC web page (which has reached almost complete useless with all the self-launching Flash shit and ads everyfuckingwhere.

"The Undefeated"? Always worth a chuckle to see the whiniest, most useless clumpnuggets giving themselves the most vainglorious names.

The actual network does appear to have at least s modicum of real sports left. To witness a truly awesome level of convergence, check out the magazine. It wasn't much to start with, but now it's utterly toxic. They did the feminist poetry bit months ago, and every other story is how some poor PoC has overcome the vicious "systemic racism" of the whites who fund everything to become a bit player in some niche sport.

Do they really sit around in meetings saying, "I know! Feminist poetry! Now we'll get all of the lesbians! And Beyonce fans too!"

Yes, they really do, except it's not that straightforward. They say things like, "This will reach the underserved communities who want more from sports than men kicking and hitting things." Or, "This will help us reach all those women who avoid sports because they associate it with abusive men." Then they congratulate each other for helping make sports something that's not for macho dude-bros anymore.

Seriously, that's how it works. Find examples of SJWs talking about "diversifying" science fiction, replace "sci-fi" with "sports," and you're there. It's the same process, regardless of industry.

a deplorable rubberducky @40: "Sure enough, the VERY NEXT DAY after the new code was announced they used it against Sage Steele. They got her for making un-PC comments on her personal Facebook account. She's gone."

"SN: So how do you answer the growing complaint that ESPN has become too liberal? That ESPN personalities are talking too much about politics? And not enough about sports?

MG: I would answer the same way I answered your previous question. In my 18 years, no one has ever come to me and told me what to say or what to talk about. So any political discussion or discourse that we have on our show is exclusively up to us. There’s no agenda beyond our own. I would imagine that’s the same for everybody. So I would imagine that whatever it is Stephen A. (Smith) feels, that’s what he says. Whatever it is that Michael (Smith) and Jemele (Hill) and Scott Van Pelt and Will Cain and Michael (Wilbon) and Tony (Kornheiser) on "PTI," and everybody, whatever it is they feel in their heart and in their conscience about various issues, that’s what they say on the air. I can’t imagine it’s different from that anywhere. Speaking solely for our show, I think we are socially conscious people. We talk about politics a little, to the degree there’s an intersection between the political world and sports. At times it’s not avoidable. Colin Kaepernick and all of that last year and a variety of other issues. So I don’t think of it that way. I know for sure that there isn’t some sort of agenda being driven through us. If that is something that people think, then I guess that’s something to consider."

Oblivious to the fact that the liberal slant is not an explicit directive, but is being driven by hiring practices instead. Hire mostly liberal not-white males and implicitly change the culture of the network.

It really was. I chuckled when someone up-thread disparaged the idea that people buy cable for MTV, ESPN, and Comedy Central, because in the mid-1990s my TV was probably tuned to one of those 95% of the time, and mostly ESPN. Beavis and Butthead, comedy shows, or sports. We turned on SportsCenter in the morning, and just left it on.

I suppose the younger generations only know Olbermann as a shrieking leftist, too. But Patrick and Olbermann put on a great highlights show back then, and no one had any idea of their politics. It was a good watch whether you cared about the sport or team in question or not.

@64 johnc: "It's not enough to simply not watch. We have to convince others to cancel their cable so that these parasites will stop leeching off people's monthly income. We're at war."

If you could get my husband to drop it I would pay you! I loathe tv and its nonstop background noise, but he doesn't want to mess with a dish, doesn't want to watch things on the computer {sits in front of a computer screen all day} and is addicted to channel surfing - even though he's aware of and decries the anti-White and-male bias, he continues watching. Since it's his hard work and salary that's paying the bills, I'm not in a position to demand he drop his at home relaxation default, but I'd love to find an alternative.

frigger611 @37: "This Stephen A Smith clown would have been canned years ago if he were white, but instead he is called "controversial" at worst. ESPN keepin' it real, I guess, whatever.

I can't stand the guy, and he is solely responsible for my own loathing of the network..."

Agree -- I generally can't stand him either, and turn off ESPN when SC ends and his show begins. I have seen a few bits here and there in the past where he was okay and making some good points, but it was a bit like hot peppers: Tolerable In Small Doses. Now he's even lost that.

Sheila4g If you could get my husband to drop it I would pay you! I loathe tv and its nonstop background noise

Does he read here? Tell him all the steroid using nigglets hate him just like Colon Kirkpatrick, & some even enjoy having money 5 years after they stop playing. No one is Refrigerator Perry sized or bigger without drugs

I agree. The Roku lets me watch YouTube videos on my TV. Most of the Roku options like Netflix and Amazon prime you will have to pay for. The free stuff on Roku usually comes with lots of commercials. But Roku allows you to cut the cord and not supporting ESPN is a huge bonus.

Must've been a decade or better since I last had anything to do with this outlet for clearly misogynistic reasons. Some woman was added to the commentary mix haughty about how the argument equaled the experience- no better no worse.

As if she had taken a full on hit from the offensive lineman or caught a shoulder during a tackle square in the family jewels.

It was of little surprise when the female modern sportscaster insisted on going into the locker room for post-game interview.

The tail has been wagging the dog at ESPN for longer than most converged institutions in part b/c it represented an actual refuge from the daily grind.

The only thing useful about ESPN is the live sports but then you have to put it on mute to not hear the terrible commentary.

This, pretty much.

Thing is, ESPN has always leaned leftward whenever it has gotten political. But up until about 1997 or so their programming overwhelmingly consisted of actual sports, or at least analysis of sports, with just the occasional SJW commentary on Outside the Lines or whatever. I watched ESPN a lot back then, flipping channels when the progressive crap came on for a few minutes but then switching back. But now the SJW nonsense never stops, often creeping into the play by play of the events themselves.

I despise Bill Simmons, who has also become a shameless black power and feminist shill (a huge difference from his early years), no different than his former boss John Skipper.

And I didn't much care for Grantland outside of 2 or 3 writers.

That being said, it's hilarious that the same article by ombudsman Jim Brady that casually dismisses Grantland as never close to profitable in two sentences heaps paragraphs of breathless, rapturous praise on the Undefeated.

A site that is a far greater money sink, never has a chance of being profitable, and even has a vastly smaller audience than Grantland ever did.

haven't had actual television or cable for over 17 years. But I will mention that when we did have it, we stopped watching MTV- Music Television- when it stopped playing music videos all the time. Actually, we didn't so much as watch it when it was on, but had it on as background. But it's stupid shows were just too stupid to stomach.

But all the specialty channels seem to lose sight that the people tuning in are tuning in for the specialty. Trying to widen the audience by straying from that and you start competing with everyone else for everyone else. And your core viewers give up on you.

Huh. I had the numba one draft pick in FF Football last year, and picked Cam Newton. He played like a pussy. I dropped him in a trade, and stuck with Carr and Mariota the rest of the year. They did me right, till their legs got broke.

Plenty of options out there to get rid of cable and still use your TV.

There are, but the thing that jumped out of her comment to me was "channel surfing." Some people don't want to have to choose a service and then select something to watch, or figure out which service carries such-and-such show. They want to sit back and hit a button repeatedly and just see what pops up next, the way we all did it when we had remotes, a couple dozen channels, and no onscreen guides.

If you could get a box that would aggregate all your streaming services plus the many online niche streams like the sports leagues all offer now, and just give you one button to surf through them all, I could see that being pretty popular. Do any of the Rokus and such do that?

@83, I heard an interview with Linda Cohn a while back. She talked about how she grew up the only sister with a bunch of brothers, so she had to play hockey with them. She really seemed to know her stuff, and she worked her way up back when they weren't promoting women for to virtue signal. Just one of the guys.

But in that interview, the men gushed over her in a way they never would a man, and they steered the conversation around to, "Hey, isn't it great that you were a trailblazer and now there are so many sports reporterettes?" So whether or not Linda ever pushed for more women or tried to make the boys take down their pinup calendars in the office, once you let some women in, white knights will insist on bringing in more. Entryism can happen even when the first infiltrator doesn't intend anything subversive.

I watch very little TV these days. I do like an occasional live sports event, but I have to mute every commercial. It's awful. Non-stop poz, and relentless promotion of blacks. Man, what white people with kids have to navigate these days. At least it seems that at long last, a lot of people are waking up. Is it in time? We'll see.